Yale Center for Teaching and Learning

The Yale Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was established in 2014 to advance

the university’s longstanding commitment to excellence in education. Inclusive and

interdisciplinary, the center serves faculty members, students, and postdoctoral schol-

ars across Yale College, the Graduate School, and the twelve professional schools.

The CTL works with undergraduates on writing, tutoring, and academic strategies;

with graduate students and postdocs on writing workshops and teaching skills devel-

opment; and with faculty to advance evidence-based pedagogical practices. As a key

part of its mission, the center o≠ers training for new faculty and professional develop-

ment opportunities for all instructors at Yale, through consultations, workshops, and

community events such as showcases and invited speakers.

These e≠orts have an impact across the university and raise the bar for teaching and

learning at peer institutions, both nationally and abroad. The CTL’s educators and ad-

ministrators are active in professional organizations and networks, and they participate

in conversations at the cutting edge of the field.

In January 2017, the center moved into 24,000 square feet of purpose-built space

in Sterling Memorial Library, uniting programs in teaching, tutoring, writing, and

technology-enabled learning that were previously distributed across the university.

The central importance of teaching and learning at Yale is signaled by the center’s

location in the heart of campus and within the iconic Sterling building. The state-of-

the-art space is designed to foster collaboration, transparency, and human connection.

“The first goal of the seven goals for the university is to be the research university most committed to teaching and learning.”

—President Peter Salovey ’86 ph.d.

Advising TeachersAs an institutional priority, excellence in teaching stands on par with excellence in research. All of Yale’s instructors—from junior staff to tenured faculty members—must be strongly grounded in and passionate about their subject matter. Equally important, they must be well versed in evidence-based teaching practices and have access to tools they need to continually update the curriculum. The CTL offers assistance with every facet of teaching, including course design, effective technology use, and the interpretation of student evaluations. The CTL’s resources are designed to make teaching and learning more public and collaborative, so every Yale instructor can experience the satisfaction that results from teaching well. The center supports established scholars as well as the graduate students and postdoc-toral fellows who are preparing for their academic careers.

Tutoring StudentsThe ability to write well is a foundational skill required for nearly every college course. The CTL helps students improve their writing through work with peer tutors as part of the Writing Partners program, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Graduate students can arrange a consultation to get expert advice on planning, drafting, and revising dissertations, presentations, or other projects.

Beyond writing, the CTL offers tutoring in all subject areas, from quantitative reasoning and science to the humanities. In addition, workshops on academic strategies help Yale College students address challenges such as time management, note-taking, and managing a heavy reading load. As a centralized hub for many kinds of academic support, the center helps students thrive through access to tutoring, mentoring, and peer interaction.

Exploring TechnologyThe CTL provides opportunities for faculty members to explore new ideas, adopt new techniques, and employ effective strategies for evaluation and assessment. The center offers a full range of technology solutions for pedagogical goals, along with expertise in using digital platforms to increase the reach and impact of Yale’s excellent teachers.

As tools, methods, and individual teaching approaches change and evolve, the center also encourages faculty to pursue innovation and experimentation in the classroom. CTL staff members work to forge lasting partnerships with academic departments, founded on a shared mission of improved learning experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students.

With the creation of the Center for Teaching and Learning, a long-shuttered York Street entrance to Sterling Memorial Library was reopened.

Entering the CTL from York Street, visitors encounter a welcome desk and common work areas, referred to as touchdown spaces, designed for casual group work and gatherings.

The CTL can also be accessed from the Sterling Memorial Library’s nave via a new and welcoming passageway, which also creates a direct route between Cross Campus and York Street.

Collaboration rooms are designed to foster teamwork and provide dedicated spaces for CTL staff to meet with instructors and students. An electronic reserva-tion system makes it easy to reserve a room.

The learning commons is a hub of activity and the heart of the CTL. Students and faculty gather here to study, collaborate, and socialize.

Modular furniture, like these orange couches, can be rearranged by staff and students as needed to accommodate groups of varying sizes.

Instructors are encouraged to take advantage of the CTL’s modular furniture to optimize the classroom experience. Mobile media carts, which can be posi-tioned in any space in the CTL, are equipped with the latest technology to allow for group collaboration and distance learning.

Retractable walls in two classrooms can be closed to create discrete areas for teaching or left open to form an open space connecting to the mainlearning commons.

In the studio suite, faculty members can experiment with cutting-edge technological tools, like this 3D printer. The CTL staff offers training and guidance on how technology can be incorporated into teaching.

The studio suite features a room designed for instructors to practice presentations. Ceiling-mounted cameras can record lectures for later review and analysis.

The mezzanine level is home to touchdown space, a suite of rooms dedicated to writing tutoring, and a classroom.

Like all teaching spaces in the CTL, the mezzanine classroom has modular furniture and writable glass walls.

Giving Opportunities

Center for Teaching and Learning$15,000,000 1 opportunityTo provide support of the highest caliber for student learning and writing, teaching consultations to faculty and graduate students, global online learning opportunities, and a host of other initiatives that advance Yale’s teaching mission, the university seeks to permanently endow the Center for Teaching and Learning. A gift of $15,000,000 will establish a permanent endowment, which may be recognized with the naming of the physical center and its program.

Faculty and Senior Staff Support

Executive Director$2,500,000 1 opportunityEndowing the Center for Teaching Learning’s executive director position will ensure that Yale not only continues to attract top pedagogical innovators from around the world, but also grows as a leading center for evidence-based advancements in the teaching profession. A gift of $2,500,000 will establish a permanent endowment, recognized through the naming of the directorship.

Senior Staff Endowment$1,500,000 Multiple opportunitiesSenior staff members at the Center for Teaching Learning are responsible for undergraduate and grad-uate tutoring, graduate and postdoctoral teaching and development, faculty teaching initiatives, global online learning, instructional technology support and strategy, broadcast media, and communication and collaboration technologies. The CTL seeks to endow multiple senior staff positions (e.g. director of faculty teaching initiatives, senior manager of online education), to ensure that Yale University can con-tinue to encourage innovation in teaching and learning. A gift of $1,500,000 will establish a permanent endowment, recognized through the naming of a staff position.

Executive Director’s Resource Fund$100,000–$5,000,000 Multiple opportunitiesA gift of either current-use funds or endowment will support the executive director’s resource fund and will increase the Center for Teaching Learning’s ability to develop new teaching initiatives for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows; provide instructional technology support; foster student learning; and enhance global online learning.

Programs

Undergraduate Writing Initiatives$100,000–$18,000,000 Multiple opportunitiesThe Center for Teaching Learning houses the Writing Center, developed from the original Bass Writing Program. The Writing Center serves as the focal point for improvement of undergraduate writing. Gifts to this area will cover current and expanded operations of the center, including the Residential College Tutoring Program; extension of writing courses beyond English and the humanities; the Writing Part-ners peer tutors program; the writing program for international students; discussion section support for Writing Across the Curriculum; and special programs such as academic mentoring for students from under-resourced high schools, plus operating costs for expanded support.

Teaching Innovation Fund$100,000–$5,000,000 Multiple opportunitiesThe primary goal of the Center for Teaching Learning is to support faculty and encourage innovations in pedagogy. Key to realizing this goal is the executive director’s ability to provide resources for faculty development, assessment, broadcast services, equipment, instructional technology, community out-reach, graduate student training, and more. An innovation fund is a consistent resource that the execu-tive director can allocate to meet current teaching and learning priorities and launch new initiatives. A gift of either current-use funds or endowment will ensure the center’s ability to support Yale’s out-standing faculty and graduate teaching fellows well into the future.

Facilities Gifts to support the endowment for the Center for Teaching and Learning may be recognized with the naming of a space within the center.

Learning Commons$5,000,000 1 opportunity At the heart of the Center for Teaching and Learning, the multipurpose learning commons welcomes visitors accessing the space from the Sterling Memorial Library’s newly opened York Street entrance. The bright and airy lobby features a welcoming reception area and numerous touchdown spaces for students and faculty from across the campus to work, collaborate, and engage in intellectual conversa-tion. Modular seating can be easily configured to suit the needs of a group, while mobile media stations facilitate collaboration on and off-site.

The concourse also serves as a highly visible corridor connecting the CTL to the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library and the Sterling Memorial Library nave. This new, high-traffic passageway provides, for the first time, a direct route between the library’s Cross Campus entrance and the York Street entrance.

Mezzanine$300,000 1 opportunityThe stairway at the Center for Teaching Learning’s York Street entrance leads up to the mezzanine, which houses undergraduate and graduate writing programs. At the top of the stairs, a common area provides touchdown space for work, collaboration, and conversation. Modular seating can be easily con-figured to suit the needs of a group. From the mezzanine, students and faculty can access a classroom and the writing tutor suite.

Studio Suite$200,000 1 opportunityThe Center for Teaching Learning studio suite is a pair of rooms for faculty and students to explore diverse pedagogical models and become comfortable using new applications of technology in their teaching, all with the support of CTL experts.

The first room is designed to accommodate up to twelve people and provides infrastructure to support a wide range of activities, from the more traditional, like practicing presentations, to the leading edge, like using virtual reality as a teaching tool. A ceiling-mounted camera can record presentations that faculty and students can later review and analyze. The space also includes an area for two rotating exhibits that allow faculty to try new tools and assess their pedagogical value—for example, 3D printing and virtual reality technology.

The second room is a recording studio equipped with cameras, microphones, lights, and other tools to allow faculty to produce audio-visual recordings, with the assistance of trained CTL staff. The recordings can be used to serve as the foundation of a blended learning experience or to simply create a video- based tutorial to directly respond to questions from students.

Classroom$150,000–$350,000 4 opportunities Classrooms in the Center for Teaching and Learning host a rotating selection of courses in which faculty use innovative pedagogy and technical tools—an emphasis that fosters improved teaching and dissem- inates excellent teaching practices across campus. Every teaching space is designed for optimum flex- ibility and may be easily adapted to various configurations. Several classrooms feature retractable walls, combining several rooms into one or even opening to the center’s lobby to create a large contiguous space. Glass walls let in light, promote transparency, and serve as dry-erase writing surfaces. Each class-room can accommodate twenty to thirty people. When not in use as classrooms, these spaces host a wide variety of workshops, faculty forums, and group study activities.

Modular whiteboards and mobile media stations can be rolled into any classroom or gathering space throughout the center. The six custom-designed media stations include 65" displays, stand-alone com-puters, and wireless connectivity allowing multiple users to display content from their laptops. Each media station also includes a fixed panoramic camera and microphones for remote connections, anchored by a single power cord for ease of use.

Each of the four classrooms (three on the first floor and one on the mezzanine level) faces York Street. The library’s collegiate gothic windows on that façade provide a stunning contrast to the CTL’s sleekand modern interior architecture.

Staff Collaboration Suite$150,000 1 opportunityKey to the operation of the Center for Teaching Learning is a multidisciplinary staff of pedagogical ex-perts who collaborate on a continuing basis to meet the needs of faculty members and students. A suite of four huddle rooms off the main concourse provides space for these staff members to gather for small group meetings with faculty, students, and CTL colleagues. Each room can accommodate six to eight people and houses a digital display with camera and Bluetooth-enabled speakerphone. The walls are dry-erase writing surfaces.

Writing Tutor Suite$150,000 1 opportunityOn the mezzanine level of the Center for Teaching Learning, the writing tutor suite is home to the undergraduate and graduate writing centers. The seven rooms in the suite offer space for one-on-one or small group tutoring during drop-in hours or by appointment. The walls of each room serve as dry-erase writing surfaces.

Photography by: Michael Marsland, Newman Architects, and Patrick O’Brien

To Learn More

There are many ways of supporting the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning. For more information, please contact your gift o≤cer or:

Alison ColeDirector of Development for Yale College203.432.9067alison.cole@yale.edu

For a staff directory, visit giving.yale.edu/key-contacts.

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